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XA Client now free - all app servers, all platforms!

Great news! With the announcement yesterday of WebSphere MQ 7.5 came the news that the WebSphere MQ Extended Transactional Client (XTC) is now provided free of charge. Not only is this true in the new WMQ v7.5, but it applies to all supported versions of WebSphere MQ client across all platforms.

Previously, XTC was an optional component of WebSphere MQ Server and it never had a unique part number. To obtain the client required purchasing a WebSphere MQ Server license for the server where the client was to be deployed, and then installing just the client components. Since the cost was the same as a full queue manager on the same host, many customers choose to install the full queue manager and skip the client. Although this provides the highest reliability and is a great solution architecturally, it can get a bit expensive if the network was designed to take advantage of the free MQ clients and so some customers chose to forgo XA functionality altogether.

The new pricing (or lack thereof!) removes cost as a consideration when designing transactional applications based on WebSphere MQ clients. Obviously, continue to use a local queue manager where it makes sense. But in those cases where the client model is the best fit and XA transactions are required, there is no longer any barrier to using the Extended Transactional Client and no need to upgrade to get that functionality.

There was also a bit of confusion over the license terms due to the lack of a unique part number. As a result, some shops, however well intentioned, deployed the XA client out of license compliance. The problem in these cases is finding out about the licensing charge only after deploying an extensive number of clients. The good news here is that the pricing change extends to all versions of the Extended Transactional Client, against all versions of WebSphere MQ, including existing deployments effective yesterday, April 24th.

Obviously, it will take a while for the change to be reflected in packaging. For now continue to install XTC the same as before but keep an eye on the Infocenter for more on this topic as it evolves.